Mirabile by Janet Kagen

I picked this for my memorial rereading. By the end of the book I was really sad that we won't have more stories from her.

This is a series of slightly-linked stories. They take place on a planet called Mirabile that's been settled by Earth colonists, but some of the animal embryo bank data was lost on the ship. Our protagonist is Annie Jason Masmajean -- all the colonists have their occupation as their middle name -- and she's the head Jason in her area. The Earth embryos have other animals hidden in their genes and may "chain up" to those. These are stories about what happens with both Earth stock and Mirabilan stock. There's also a wonderful family and love story.

Kagen was a biologist, and brings a very natural feeling to these unusual changes -- new animals and plants, interactions, and how they figure them out. Highly recommended.